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SOC 208Social Change and Development

PhD Fatma Altınbas Sarıgül

The Development Project□When colonies became independent nation-states, they

joined the international relations of the development project. □The national economic strategies of the new nation-states,

depended on the new international economic arrangements.□Newly independent states:

□Had colonial division of labor’s legacy of “resource bondage” embedded in their social structures

□Purchased First World technology with loans or primary export earnings

□Integrated into universal political-economic relations within the international financial, normative and legal framework of United Nations and Bretton Woods institutions

© Sage Publications, 2011.

Development Project: Key Ingredients

□Universal claims□National economic growth□International military and economic aid

□Bound the developing world to developed world and secured access to human and natural resources

□Industrial growth □Agro-industrialization□Political alliances for supporting industrial growth□New inequalities spread through markets


U.S. Bilateralism: The Marshall Plan

□After World War II, U.S. transferred billions to Europe and Japan to facilitate international trade and encourage U.S. direct investment in Europe

□Bilateral financial aid □To stabilize discontented populations□To rekindle economic growth and production□To restore trade and price stability□To contain socialist movements and communism□To allow purchase of U.S. goods□To rearm


Multilateralism: Bretton Woods System

□ Post-WWII meeting in Bretton Woods, NH, July 1944□ Financial ministers created international banking

system to restore trade via credit to devastated regions

□ The World Bank □ Borrowed money in international capital markets to raise

money for development□ Loaned funds to states for national infrastructure projects

(dams, highways, power plants) □ Invested in cash crop agriculture, which deepened legacy of

colonial division of labor□ International Monetary Fund (IMF)

□ Disbursed credit to stabilize national currency exchanges and revitalize international trade


The Functions of Bretton Woods Institutions

□To stabilize national finances and revitalize international trade

□To underwrite national economic growth by funding Third World imports of First World infrastructural technologies

□To expand Third World primary exports to earn foreign currency for purchasing First World exports.


First World Imprint on Bretton Woods Institutions

□World Bank policy reflected First World priorities: □Investments in energy, export agriculture, large-

scale capital-intensive projects□Sponsored Western technology transfer□Encouraged import dependence □Established institutional presence in Third World

□Multilateralism, World Bank style, set the parameters for development

□IMF “conditionality” required (Third World) states to adopt specific economic policies, which became criteria for other lenders



□In governance□World Bank is controlled by five biggest

shareholders. □Overwhelming male representation still

exists□U.S. administration selects the President

of World Bank□Largest European nations appoint

Managing Director of IMF© Sage Publications, 2011.


□The World Bank has emphasized ‘productive’ investments, such as energy and export agriculture, rather than ‘social’ investments such as education, health services, water and sanitation facilities and housing.

□The World Banks sponsored Western technology transfer and established a local center in Third World countries.


Politics of the Postwar World Order

□Cold War rivalries:□Soviet Union expanded economic and political

relations with Third World, created aid for strategic states, favoring those who pursued policies of central planning and public ownership

□United States/allies aid stabilized strategic states and undercut rival (socialist) ideologies

□Iran, Turkey, Israel, India, Pakistan, South Vietnam, Taiwan, South Korea, Philippines, Thailand, Laos

□Selectivity of aid contradicted the espoused universalism of the development project


The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)

□“Nonaligned” Asian and African states met in 1955 at Bandung, Indonesia□ Articulated philosophy of noninterference in international

relations; economic self-reliance□ Questioned legitimacy of development model □ Demanded more loans and concessions for Third World□ Key players: Indonesia (Sukharno), India (Nehru), Ghana

(Nkrumah), Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh), Egypt (Nasser), and China (Zhou Enlai)

□ First World Response:Created a new subsidiary of the World Bank, the International Development Association (IDA), and regional banks (Inter-American Development Bank, African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank). Made loans at discounted rates.


The Group of 77□1947 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

□Enabled states to negotiate reciprocal trade concessions, but without adjusting for the uneven effects of colonialism.

□During the 1950s, the Third World’s share of world trade fell from one-third to almost one-fifth.

□Third World pressure founded United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in 1964□Caucusing as the Group of 77 (G-77), they

demanded world-economic reforms


The Group of 77□Goals

□Stabilize and improve primary commodity prices□Open First World markets to Third World

manufactures□Expand financial flows from the First World

□Impact of UNCTAD □Spread “Third Worldist” perspective□World Bank president Robert McNamara (1968-81)

refocused development (for a time) on quality of life issues rather than simply income measures

□“growth with equity”


Remaking the International Division of Labor

□By 1980, exports from Third World included more manufactured goods than raw materials □ ISI protected Third World “infant” industries

□The First World exported 36% more primary commodities than the Third World□ Farm subsidies protected First World

agriculture


Newly Industrializing Countries (NICs)

□Legitimized the development project with rising living standards and upward mobility

□Demonstrated selectivity of the project □Cornered bulk of private foreign investment and

(Cold War driven) military aid sustaining authoritarian regimes

□Concentrated on export production of textiles and electronics and industrial growth

□50% of increased value in Third World manufacturing occurred in 4 countries□But, 2/3 of increase in 8 countries


The Food-Aid Regime □The post-war U.S. agro-industrial model:

□Used public-supported technological support □Specialized in one or two commodities □Protected farm goods with tariffs and subsidies□Set prices for farm goods above world market

prices□Routinely over-produced

□Surpluses were sent to Third World as food aid□These subsidized Third World wages□Stimulated Third World urban industrial sectors


Food Dependency□Cheaper for Third World governments to

import subsidized wheat than to fund production, transport and distribution of local food□Per capita consumption of wheat rose by nearly

2/3 and all cereals (except wheat) by 20 percent□Traditional “peasant foods” replaced by new

“wage foods” (grains and processed foods)□Erosion of peasant agriculture□Industrial labor force expanded as small

producers moved to cities for low-wage jobs© Sage Publications, 2011.

The Global Livestock Complex□“Dietary modernization” resulted from food-

aid policy as much as rising incomes

□Growing commodity chains linked feed producers with animal protein producers globally

□Surplus imported grain was cheap enough to feed livestock □More affluent Third World consumers shifted from

eating grain to animal protein© Sage Publications, 2011.

Does Feed Grain Trade Change Diets?

□Dietary differentiation reflects who controls production of certain foods and class differences in consumption patterns□Example: In Egypt, rising incomes and

government subsidies fostered a switch from legumes and maize to wheat and meat products.

□Wealthy consumers dine on animal protein; working poor dine either on food aid grains, low-protein starchy diets, or little at all.

□ It is not “natural” for people with rising incomes to eat more meat


The Green Revolution□A “package” of plant-breeding agricultural

technologies that increased production of corn, wheat and beans by 300% from 1943 to 1963.□Stimulated by fear of population growth

□Political pressure to convert wartime nitrogen production and nerve gases to inorganic fertilizer and insecticides

□Technologies developed by the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations in Mexico, Philippines, Nigeria, Colombia □Promoted by U.S. land grant university system and

large, capitalized farmers


Development Project: Anti-rural Biases

□ Third World governments’ development policies systematically privileged urban interests□expressed a modernist belief in peasant

redundancy□ Growing rural poverty and marginalization

stimulated the land reform movement □ U.S. Alliance for Progress (1961) Program

coordinated nationally-planned agrarian reform across Latin America □to undercut insurgencies □to stabilize rural populations via a U.S.-inspired

family farming model© Sage Publications, 2011.

Results of Land Reforms□Land reforms exempted commercialized

farmland and resettled people on remaining frontier lands□Resettlement privileged males, excluded women,

relocated rural poverty and destroyed tropical forests

□Persistent rural poverty in 1960s led World Bank to devise a new poverty alleviation program of credit for smallholding peasants to stabilize rural populations, □Program met with mixed success


The “Planet of Slums”□Long-term assault on peasant agriculture

has continued through colonialism, food dumping, and institutional support of commercial and export agriculture

□Result: “Planet of slums” as displaced peasants migrate to overcrowded urban centers in Latin America, Asia, Africa

□Lesson: Neither resettlement of peasants nor their integration into monetary relations is a sustainable substitute for supporting agro-ecological methods


Summary□The Third World was incorporated into a

singular project, despite variations, through military and economic aid, technological transfer, and food subsidies

□Food aid reshaped international division of labor□As First World agriculture expanded, new

industrial classes emerged in the Third World □Green revolution technologies stimulated social

differentiation, urban migration and relocation of industrial jobs to the Third World


soc 222 4

Education